Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:07 pm Post subject: Not hit to dog.
I was driving on the speed limit and dog was running toward my car, I pullmy car to my right side and hit to concreat bridge. this cause $ 4000.00 damage to my car. This cause my Insurance goes up or not?
I want to say thank you for being so humane and not taking a second thought about not plowing down the animal, there are people out there who would have done just that.
About your insurance question, I am not real sure if it will make your insurance go up or not, I would think it would be just as if you were hit by a deer. I hope it don't. I am sure that someone will come along shortly to give you a more detailed answer on this.
But wanted to say thank you again for not plowing down the dog, I know it is no consolation for your damage, but thanks anyway.
Do you know who the animal belongs to? Would they be responsible for your deductable or maybe if you could find out anything about who owners are and they may be responsible for all the damage, just a thought?
Most likely this will be considered an at fault accident. It's a single vehicle collision loss. Your company could look at this two ways... 1) You lost control of your vehicle and hit an object. 2) The dog caused you to swerve and really, the owner of the dog is responsible.
As mentioned above, the owner of the dog should be looked into as if they allow their dog to run free or know that he/she gets away often and they do nothing about it they should be held accountable (for the property damage and for the threat to their dogs life). Alas, your insurance company won't pursue recovery against the dog owner as it's too difficult to do.
Is there anyway to find out who the owner of the dog is? I would try to find out this information and keep it close at hand if possible, you may need it, even if the insurance company pays for the damage, you may want to pursue the owners for your deductible, I would.
Weather the dog was let run free or it was a case of it just got loose, the owner is responsible for what the animal does or causes.
I want to say thank you for being so humane and not taking a second thought about not plowing down the animal, there are people out there who would have done just that.
This is great in theory and our impulse, but most people (including me) would have to tell you not to ever do this again!!! Unless you are sure of your path of escape...I cannot tell you the number of claims over the years , that have resulted in horrible injuries and six that come prominently to my mind that caused deaths for this exact same thing...(trying to avoid an animal and hit something else)....let me say that no one loves dogs/cats/animals more than me.... it's just the truth...
Re: the dogs owner, first if you find them I doubt seriously you could 'prove' it was their dog...they are gonna swear that fido was in the house at the time...
At fault most certainly and likely chargeable...you have to understand that once you don't impact the animal it goes from comp to collision and the facts of loss will make it chargeable...also unfortunately everyone that hits something, says they swerved for one reason or another...and rarely tell the truth about it (i was on the phone, changing a cd, drunk etc)...I'm 100% sure you are telling the truth so don't get me wrong please....
So sorry this happened, I hit a cat one time (I did try to avoid) and was just sick about it for weeks, still makes me sad... _________________ Have you been helped by a poster? Do you want to show your appreciation? YOU CAN !! Just simply click on the donate button and send them some coin!
I don't think that anyone feels good about hitting an animal, but I always hope that if I do it is dead on impact, I don't like to see the suffering or hear the crying out in pain, that noise would stay in my head for a long, long time.
I love animals to, so dead on impact to me is less suffering.
Sorry that your car got this messed up, and I really hope you get everything worked out soon.
This is especially true for a wild animal because no one is gonna come along and take it to a veternarian, it will end up in the woods suffering to it either passes on or gets some type of infection due to the wounds. Hate to see any of it happen, but would just rather it be done quickly and on impact.
I have another terrible story (claim I handled) about an insured hitting a deer...the poor 'woman' (really was a chick) hit this deer (we have ton's of this in my area) anyway the poor animal was suffering, she didn't have a gun with her, but wanted to put it out of it's misery...well all she had a was huge buck knife, her thought was to well cut it's poor throat, and stop it's agony her heart was definately in the right place. I'm not sure what happened, if the animal flinched or what....but at any rate, she ended up cutting that main artery in her own thigh...she didn't make it, and bled to death right there on the highway within minutes....I handled both the comp and we paid medpay limit as well...I too as I mentioned earlier am an animal lover, but you have to remember your own safety as well...as I posted earlier in this thread, I've seen so many people seriously injured (not like this of course) and killed 'swerving' to miss an animal. _________________ Have you been helped by a poster? Do you want to show your appreciation? YOU CAN !! Just simply click on the donate button and send them some coin!
OMG, Lori, that is one heck of a story. You don't hear those very often that is for sure, how bizarre.
I do see your point of people swerving to miss and ending up seriously hurt over an animal. I guess we really have no control over wild life, but our domestic ones we do and we should be very aware of the danger we cause when we let them run loose. Thank you for an eye opener. Feel bad that happened.
Yeah, it was one of those claims that 'stick' with you....I think people forget some times that as adjusters in situations like this we have to deal with and try hard to help the surviors in a very difficult time..... _________________ Have you been helped by a poster? Do you want to show your appreciation? YOU CAN !! Just simply click on the donate button and send them some coin!
It must be harder to do your job in these situations Lori, thank god that they don't happen often. The adjuster probably the last person that they want to deal with it at this time, but you have to be there.
How would the medpay come into play in a situation like this. I would think this would fall under accidental death also right? and the auto insurance company would pay for the death in this situation too right?
medpay in my state anyway, first of all is not manditory...but this particular insured had it...the medpay will pay for injuries very broad, and says something along the lines of, 'injuries sustained, while in, on, alight to or from' etc...i've even paid auto medpay claims, for people bumping their heads while getting in and out of their cars...in my state too medpay will cover 'some' funeral expenses...this person did not have accidental death on their policy had they then yes we would've covered that as well..in this case the proximent cause was the impact with the deer. _________________ Have you been helped by a poster? Do you want to show your appreciation? YOU CAN !! Just simply click on the donate button and send them some coin!
Okay, thank you for the clarification there, seems kind of silly to have the medpay and not the accidental death on an auto insurance policy, do a lot of people choose not to have take out the accidental death?
it's just the truth...
